One of President-elect Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisers says a nationwide lockdown of four to six weeks could bring the spread of the virus under control.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance on Wednesday, Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota expert on infectious diseases, added that he believes a lockdown wouldn’t need to torpedo the economy.

“We could pay for a package right now to cover all of the wages, lost wages, for individual workers,” he said, noting low interest rates. 

Osterholm added federal borrowing could bail out small- and medium-sized businesses as well as state and local governments.

Osterholm, who was named to Biden’s coronavirus advisory board this week, pointed to lockdowns in New Zealand, Australia and some places in Asia that are credited with helping drive down the numbers of infections to almost nothing. Other countries, including England, France and Germany, have recently imposed new lockdown measures as cases have soared there.

Osterholm noted that a vaccine should be widely available shortly after a lockdown. 

“We could really watch ourselves cruising into the vaccine availability in the first and second quarter of next year while bringing back the economy long before that,” Osterholm said.

In the meantime, the number of virus cases, hospitalizations and deaths are skyrocketing in the U.S. Osterholm warned that he believes, if Americans do not change their behavior, matters will only get worse due to more indoor gatherings in the colder months and “pandemic fatigue” – people tiring of following health guidelines. Earlier this week, he said the U.S. was about to enter “COVID hell.”

Biden does not take office until Jan. 20 – another 69 days away.

The president-elect said during his campaign he would support a nationwide lockdown if that were recommended by scientists. 

“I would be prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives, because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus,” Biden told ABC News in August.

Osterholm’s plan to provide aid to those affected by a lockdown would likely face stiff resistance in Congress. Unless the two Democratic candidates sweep Georgia’s Senate runoffs in January, Republicans will retain control of the chamber. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has made it clear he does not support another multitrillion-dollar relief package.

As of Thursday afternoon, the U.S. had recorded more than 10.4 million COVID-19 cases and 242,000 deaths. On Wednesday, the country set a record with more than 144,000 new cases.